About Me

Born and raised in Iowa, entered the Navy in 1955, retired in 1979, went to work for Energy Transportation Corporation (ETC) in New York under auspices of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association (a Union). Retired in 1989. Settled in Deltona where a friend was living. For 15 years was MREO on the SS LNG Libra carrying liquid natural gas from Indonesia to Japan.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

We came across the following email from you and wanted to provide an answer. Currently images can only be downloaded or printed one at a time and there is not an option to mass download or print.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Thanks again,

Gordon Atkinson

Director of Customer Service and Marketing

Fold3

This makes FOLD3 close to worthless unless you have an unlimited amount of time to waste waiting for your pages to come in one at a time.

There is another problem.

When you get a hit and open the page there is often a note at the bottom of the page saying "nn (some number) of pages in this document contain matches". If you're unaware of that you will miss all of the pages beyond the first one in that Vol.

At the bottom of the thumbnail for the first page there will be other thumbnails indicating the other pages available.

Say the PA Archives, Series 5 Vol XI pages 345, 732, 815. Page 345 will be enclosed in a box, clicking on the box brings that page up.

Clicking on "LARGER" expands the page to full size and you can then click "DOWNLOAD".

When the first page is downloaded you go back ;and click on the second page, 732. That page comes up and clicking "LARGER" expands it to full size. Now click "DOWNLOAD" and the page reverts to page 345.

As far as I know there is only one way to get that page to print, you must scroll to it using the film strip.

When there is a big jump from the first page to the second it is laborious to use that film strip and if you lay on the left or right film strip arrow you will often shoot way past your target page.

My solution, unless the page numbers are close together, is to make a note of the Series, Volume and Page numbers that you're not able to easily get to and then go back and pick up the extra pages through the BROWSE feature.

BROWSE: You enter the 'Revolutionary War' section then select 'Pennsylvania Archives' and then the Series and Volume. You will be shown several sections in that volume. Page numbers are not shown so you have to click various sections until you find the section that has the page you want.

Now your extra pages will come up and can be downloaded.

The PA Archives is a wonderful resource so it's worth learning how to use it if you have anybody who ever lived in Pennsylvania.

I give all of the pages I download from the PA the name "Series 5 Vol II Page nnn". By doing that you will have a folder with all of the pages you have downloaded in their proper order. When you get another hit you can quickly scroll down the folder (in DETAIL mode) and see whether you've already downloaded that page.

Please let me know of any problems you encounter or anything I have written that turns out to be wrong. I'm feeling my way with FOLD3 and am not terribly impressed however, I think the PA Archives alone is worth the trouble.

What do you think?

Jerry

PS Looking at the film strip, there are little red numbers on some pages. That number is the number of annotations for that page. I've never found anything useful in them.

Friday, March 1, 2013

I've spent the day wrestling with Fold3. My conclusion is that it is the hardest web site to use that I've ever encountered.

I started by searching for all of the Shearer surname, all variations.

I have 200 hits from the Pennsylvania Archives that I'm working on.

One of the hits was the Revolutionary War Pension file for Conrad Goodner, husband of Elizabeth Sherer. What a find, the record was 65 pages. I set about looking for a way to download the entire record. No way!

After struggling with it for a while I put in a phone call to Kim Dolce at the City Island Library. Kim is conducting lessons on Fold3 but she had no answer. She promised to find out the answer.

So far, there is no known way to accomplish the objective.

Giving up I set out to download the pages one at a time. It is a VERY SLOW process. The site keeps flashing the WE'RE SORRY IT IS TAKING SO LONG TO PULL UP THE METADATA FOR THIS IMAGE. It took me about 3 hours to download 65 pages. I had to restart the site several times to get it to process my requests. The only thing running on my computer was my browser.

On the other hand, when I finally got the record there were some jewels in those pages. Here's one of the best surprises I've ever found in such records:

September 25, 1934Mittie L. PratherOnawa, Iowa [Monona Co.]Madam; I have to advise you that from the papers in the Revolutionary War
pension claim R. 4113 it appears that Conrad Goodner was born Novemer
29, 1756. While living in Hillsborough, Orange County, North
Carolinan (sic) he enlisted November 1, 1776 and served nine months as
a private in Captain John Griffy's Company, Colonel Thackston's North
Carolina Regiment. He was allowed pension on his application
executed June 3, 1833 while a resident of Saint Clair County, Illinois. He died August 27, 1837 Soldier married in 1782 in Guilford County,
North Carolina, Elizabeth ________* who died April 12, 1839 leaving the
following children:John GoodnerSally Browning.David Goodner born in 1786.Jacob Goodner born July 3, 1790.James Goodner born February 8, 1792.Jane Ann or Jeanan Goodner born January 9, 1794Benjamin Goodner born June 4, 1795Godfrey Goodner born in February 1798.Francis A. Goodner.Elijah Goodner.Elisabeth Holcomb. Respectfully, Acting Commissioner

Saturday, January 26, 2013

I had all of my R&B files on an 8GB thumb drive. I've backed it up but not for a long time. Unfortunately Carbonite doesn't back up thumb drives.

Yesterday, for the second time, the drive was suddenly totally blank and when I tried to access it I was told that it was not formatted and should formatting begin. NO

I had previously bought a program specifically for this situation, it is called "BadCopy Pro", it cost $40.

I ran BadCopy and it recovered most of my files, 2,398 of them! Unfortunately it doesn't recover the file names so now I have "File1.aaa through File 2398.aaa" the recovered file does include the aaa file extension which included DOC, JPG, GIF, and mostly PDF.

After recovering all the files I threw that thumb drive in the trash and ordered a replacement at NEWEGG for $6, shipping included. Wish I had done that after the first crash.

Now I'm looking for the January board and general meeting minutes which I completed yesterday at the library and was getting ready to post.

The moral of the story is that, no matter how carefully you back things up a crash can always catch you napping.

1) BACK UP EARLY AND OFTEN.
2) IF A DRIVE FAILS ONCE THROW IT AWAY BECAUSE IT WILL FAIL AGAIN.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

I no more than published the article on
eReader/Tablet Computer selection than I received a request for
information on the Kobo. I had never heard of it but have learned a
lot in a short time. There is an article in The Beacon (3-5 Dec 2012
pg 2A) about the Kobo being the savior of local book shops. I'm not
sure how that applies when all of the usual sources are selling the
Kobo.

NOTE - YOU CAN USE THE KOBO STORE BY INSTALLING THE KOBO APP ON OTHER DEVICES

NOTE: DRM is "Digital Rights Management" which requires a license to use content. Adobe DRM provides, free, a program for your computer that manages your DRM files. Example: eBooks you borrow from the public library.

Ancestry has launched a new newspaper site. It is just getting started but expect them to add papers quickly in the next 2 or 3 months. Some of the content overlaps with what Ancestry has available through their regular subscription site.

Kimberly Powell has written a great review of what is available and what is planned.

Monday, December 3, 2012

SELECTING A TABLET COMPUTER / eREADER

by Jerry Hale

December 3, 2012

First, let me say that I am NOT
an expert. My experience has been with the Nook Color and a little
with the Kindle. I've only read about the others. For my money the
Apples are not a consideration. Although they are very popular
everything Apple does is especially proprietary and expensive.
Except for the Apples the whole world is using the Android system so
there are plenty of free apps (applications) and third party
accessories for the Android devices, you don't have to go to the
Apple Store to get them. Android is the most popular operating system (OS), it is being used in everything from eReaders to autos. Ford announced it was putting the Android OS into it's new cars.

When people see me using my
tablet computer they often want to know more about the choices they
have when considering acquiring one.

It depends upon what you want to
do with the device, use it as an eReader only or use it as a full
blown tablet computer?

Do you want to pay the extra
money to get one of the top of the line tablets, Apple or Samsung
Galaxy, with a camera (or even two) or can you buy an eReader (Nook
or Kindle) and convert it to a tablet computer as I have?

Other considerations are memory
size, battery life, whether or not the battery is replaceable? On
the Nook Color the battery is not made to be replaced by the user but
many who are technically oriented have opened it up and replaced the
battery themselves. I haven't heard whether Barnes and Noble will
replace the battery if you send it back. One thing I know about the
Nook is that the power cable is fragile. I've broken two of them
even while being careful. Fortunately Barnes and Noble seems to be
aware that they have a problem and have sent replacement cables for
no charge. One disadvantage of hacking a Nook is that there is no
camera on it.

Battery life varies quite a bit,
the iPad claims "up to 10 hours", hmmm the problem is that
4 hours qualifies in that statement. Manufacturers of notebook
computers are notorious for claiming longer battery life that they
ever produce. The other ads do not specify battery life.

From the web site Squidoo
http://www.squidoo.com/tablet-vs-ereader

"The
battery life of e-readers is significantly better than that of tablet
computers. e-Readers can typically go for a month or more of regular
use without having to be charged. Tablets run out of battery life
within a few hours or so. This is mostly due to the screen type
(discussed above) and the fact that they do a lot more internal
processing."

I maximize the battery life
between recharges by turning off the screen of my Nook and my Droid X
smart phone whenever I'm not using them.

Purusing the ads in this Sunday's
newspaper I find that there are 17 choices. The Samsung
"Transformer" is the most expensive at $750. Transformer
means it has a keyboard that the tablet fits into and it then becomes
a notebook computer.

On the other end of the spectrum,
at $70 is the Kindle eReader (black and white) only for reading
electronic books. See the lists at the end of this article.

Other considerations are screen
size, memory and operating system. Except for the iPads the
operating system is some version of the Android. Android (Google)
gives their operating systems colorfull names to distinguish them
apart. Version 3.2 was called "Gingerbread," version 4.0
is called Ice Cream Sandwich (or ICS) and version 4.2 is called
"Jelly Bean".

The Nook and the Kindle use a
proprietary version of the Android operating system but can be
"hacked" and turned into a full tablet computer. The SD
memory card is replaceable, I use a 16gb card but have a 32gb card I
can use if 16gb ever proves to be inadequate.

I "liberated" my Nook
Color and it is now running a hacked version of Android called
"Cyanogen 7". Hacking or "jail breaking" the
Nook is very easy, I have no experience with the Kindle. A step by
step procedure can be found on the www with video tutorials on
YouTube to help you through the job. I missed something the first
and second time I tried and turned my Nook into a "glass brick."
After I realized I wasn't going to have a heart attack I went back
to the www and Googled "Nook glass brick" and learned how
to rescue the device. The third time worked as advertised and I've
been very pleased with the result. I bought the Color Nook
reconditioned, from Barnes & Noble, for $150. I'm sure it doesn't
work as well as an iPad or a Galaxy but it is adequate to my needs
for now. I will help anyone who wants to go that route, it is easy
once you know how ;-)

The nurse at my podiatrist's
office said she had the iPad with a 10" screen and found it too
large and too heavy to hold comfortably. It was especially difficult
if she tried to read in bed. She was going to buy a 7" model
instead.

The best part of these new
devices is the world of books it opens up. I have purchased one book
but have downloaded a couple of hundred from the free sites like The
Gutenburg Project. At present I'm reading "The History of the
Inquisition" in three volumes. It is more interesting than any
modern book I've read. My next assignment is "The Rise and Fall
of the Roman Empire". All free.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Hello all,

Last Thursday I was working in the
Genealogy Room and an old man came in. He wanted a history of
Volusia County. I guided him to the shelf where he found the book he
wanted. He sat down at a table and took out a magnifying glass.
After a while he called me over and asked whether that book was
available in large print. I said that I was sorry but it wasn't.

I sat back down at the desk and looked
over to the old card catalog file. On top is the old magnifying
glass which is lighted. I drew his attention to it. He went over
and used the glass but I could see he was uncomfortable standing up
for very long.

Suddenly I remembered what I call the
"Big Eye". It is a home made device that we used to have
on a desk over by the off-line computer. When Louise donated the
microfiche reader we decided that there had been little or no use of
the "Big Eye" and so removed it and put in the microfiche
reader.

I thought that the "Big Eye"
had been disposed of but when I looked in the back corner there it
was. I didn't know whether it still worked, as a matter of fact I
have never seen it work. Nonetheless I decided that it would fit
nicely on the book cart. I rolled the cart to the back of the room
and picked up the TV and it did fit on the cart. I wheeled it to the
front of the room then realized that all of the device had not come
with the TV. The "Big Eye" is actually two separate
devices, the TV and the projector. I brought the projector up and
slid it in place under the TV then plugged both units into the power
block.

There was one cable coming from the
projector that obviously should plug into the TV. It turns out the
yellow, video, input on the TV is where the projector connects. I
plugged it in and turned everything on and sure enough, when I placed
a book on the tray under the projector the TV showed the page in very
large and easy to read form on the screen.. The tray moves right and
left and in and out. The only problem is that the magnification does
not allow a small enough setting to show the whole page without
scrolling.

I drew up a chair in front of the TV
and showed the man how to use “Big Eye.” He sat down and began
to use it to easily read the Volusia History he was interested in.
He seemed to like it although he didn't say anything at all.

I went about my business and was at the
off-line computer when I saw him walk by the window on his way out!
No thanks, no goodbye, nothing ;-) Such is the life of a public
servant I guess, he probably had a back ache.

Anyway I thought I'd write up what I
learned in case anyone else is asked for help with a visually
impaired customer. I don't know who built and donated the "Big
Eye", probably someone like one of our departed members, Herbert
Price.

I worked with Herb near the end of his
life. He was nearly blind from macro degeneration and had torticollis which caused his neck to be
bent forward to where he had a hard time raising his head to look at
the computer screen. He had a braille-like overlay for his keyboard.
I was impressed with his tenacity in pursuing his genealogy although
he was suffering greatly and kept messing up his FTW database.